RPG Roundtable

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By Apache

The RPG Vault is concluding another RPG Roundtable where some RPG related game designers share their views on a specific subject. The focus of this latest one is looking back at last year's crop of RPG titles. Among the designers participating is Irrational's Ken Levine:

Ask yourself, is it easier to roll dice or make a complex moral decision? Meaningful development of a character's emotional state is much more difficult to pull off in a RPG than simply evolving your avatar's battle ranking. That's not to say that one is better than the other for gameplay. It's just important that gamers acknowledge there's life beyond endless hours of levelling up. It's also important to realize that the two types of development can peacefully co-exist.

Morality in video games is nothing new. While CRPGs have tried to incorporate moral dilemmas (often superficial, admittedly) since well before Ultima, it's only been recently that player solutions to these dilemmas have begun to affect character development. When I look back on the games I've played in the past, it becomes clear to me how neglected character development is. Playing Knights of the Old Republic made me realize that it is indeed possible to truly become the character, and it made me keenly aware of how absent this notion was in other games I'd played. Just a few hours in, it hit me that someone had finally managed to bridge the gap between the two types of progress.